"The Administration shares your desire for job creation and a strong national defense, but a Death Star isn't on the horizon. Here are a few reasons:

"The construction of the Death Star has been estimated to cost more than $850,000,000,000,000,000. We're working hard to reduce the deficit, not expand it.
The Administration does not support blowing up planets.
Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?"

If I thought our government could be this funny, I'd start a pointless petition about building a TARDIS today.

"Large corn and soy farms are mostly to blame, scientists and activists say, because they rely heavily on large quantities of phosphorous- and nitrogen-rich fertilizer that leach into the lakes, where they feed toxic blooms of cladophora and other nasty algae species. Manure from factory farms only adds to the nutrient load. [...] Farmers retort by pointing out that many households are also wasteful when it comes to the use of lawn fertilizers, which enter the lakes through storm-water drains."

TV The raised eye brow which greets me from people who know I’m a huge Doctor Who fan, or devotee, or whatever I am, when I tell them I’ve never been to a convention in my life is always amusing.

“You’re never been to convention?” They say, as though being a Doctor Who fan and sitting a large room listening to anecdotes from actors before becoming terribly drunk with some old friends are mutually exclusive.

“No.” I say.

“Why?”

My reasons are well rehearsed.

The cost. Conventions tend to be quite expensive, between the travel, the entrance price and the train travel and since I’m a perennially poor person I’ve never really been able to afford it between the other fan trappings (the merchandise).

Geography. Conventions tend to be held well away from Liverpool, often in a hotel on some inconvenient A-road inaccessible for those of us who use public transport.

Time. Conventions usually happen at the weekends and in Winter months and since 2007 I’ve been working Saturdays and Sundays.

But the other reason is, I’m not really interested in meeting people related to the making of Doctor Who.

I should qualify that by saying I’m not generally interested in meeting celebrities in general.

The reason’s pretty straightforward but let me phrase it as a question.

"The opening verses of 'The Hollow Men' use images of dryness very similarly to 'The Waste Land'. it does not represent simply death (which in Buddhist thought, is the supreme goal of Nirvana, only reached by the most enlightened beings), but a lack of real life, a dreadful, sterile limbo state devoid of redemption or spiritual meaning."

During a post-Christmas clear-out this morning I found all of my exercise books from infants and primary school. In between the barely legible transcriptions of history lessons and my first computer studies lesson which was about gas bills it seems, was this curious document the origin of which I have little to no idea. I assume it was the homework for some kind of creative writing lesson, writing a chapter each week, and lacking anything in the way of an original thought (start as you mean to go on) (show me the child at seven) (etc) it's a rewriting of Marvel Comics's major crossover event, presumably based on the UK reprint which were in circulation at the time. Find below a transcript of ...

CHAPTER 1SUPER HEROESWelcome to the Secret Wars!

The heroes participating are:-

Spider-man, well he does not need a intro.

She-Hulk, she is a feminine version of the Hulk with one exception, she is intelligent!

Capt. America is a very skilled combatant who is very kind.

Plus in the Fantastic Four there are: Mr Fantastic, a man who can stretch his body into any shape.

The Thing, is strong, but his appearance may frighten you.

Johnny Storm, the Human torch. A fiery hero.

Now come the villains:

Doctor Doom, a very powerful villain.

Then there's Kang, Doctor Doom's futuristic counterpart.

Then the Molecule Man comes foreth. He concentrates molecules, man! He is powerful.

Doc Octopus has 8 arms.

Ultron, His mission is to all (illegible) living, Kill!

The Enchantress, an Asgardian goddess.

Underneath is the following drawing and teacher's comment:

You're too kind. No really. Bet you can't wait to see what happens next.

"... most people who think they are practicing law are actually making binders, and my guess is that most people who think they are doing whatever important thing they are doing are making binders. The binders from law firms go to a locker in a warehouse in a parking lot in an office park off an exit of a turnpike off a highway off an interstate in New Jersey, never to be looked at again. No one ever read them in the first place. But some client was billed for the hourly work."

Which explains how much of the Leveson enquiry worked, I'm sure. I hope 2013 is a better time for you Elizabeth.

"The development of teaching machines is traced from the patented educational devices of the 19th century through the initial teaching machines of Sidney Pressey in the 1920s to the machines invented by B. F. Skinner in the 1950s. The obscurity of Pressey's pioneering work in this field contrasted with the fame achieved by Skinner is discussed in a historical context. The final sections discuss the short-lived success and eventual failure of classroom teaching machines in the 1950s and 1960s."

Theatre I won't quote the thing (because that would be unfair) but I urge you to read Ian's description of his adolescent attitude to pantomimes in his always entertaining rummage through his old diaries. Since I find theatres an oppressive business (in general) (sometimes) (depends), there's nothing here I'd disagree with.

"An estimated 10% to 20% of Mauritania’s 3.4 million people are enslaved — in “real slavery,” according to the United Nations’ special rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, Gulnara Shahinian. If that’s not unbelievable enough, consider that Mauritania was the last country in the world to abolish slavery. That happened in 1981, nearly 120 years after Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in the United States. It wasn’t until five years ago, in 2007, that Mauritania passed a law that criminalized the act of owning another person. So far, only one case has been successfully prosecuted."

"Escape is no guarantee of freedom. When Ahmeid went to her local magistrate, her mother testified against her. Her uncle beat her savagely. After weeks shuttling between sympathisers, she found herself crouching in a two-storey building in Nouakchott late one evening as truckloads of policemen stormed an anti-slavery organisation where she had been sheltering. The group's leader, Birame Ould Abeid, and three others were jailed after publicly burning religious texts that have been used to justify slavery, and calling for black Moors and black Africans to unite."